Extra! New schools newspaper award has great prizes

Calling all student storytellers – the new Front Page schools newspaper competition has 18 iPads to award to winning entries. Entries close soon.

Front Page is open to primary and secondary students across Australia.

Front Page is the new newspaper competition for schools.Credit:Fairfax Designers

An initiative of Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) and Fairfax Media, publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Front Page has three award categories: upper primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary.

The winning entry in each of those three categories is awarded six tablets for their school. Winners are invited to tour the newsroom of either the SMH or The Age, publishers of this site. Winners will also be photographed and have an article about their entry published in The Age and the SMH.

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To enter, students create a small school newspaper and submit it as a PDF to frontpage.online. The deadline for entries for all categories to be received by ATOM is Friday, September 21.

Some schools have already submitted their creations; some are well along the process; others are at an early stage and some are opting for real-world, deadline-driven success.

"For many students taking part in Front Page, this is the first time their words and images will be published," says ATOM managing editor Peter Tapp.

"It's a group effort. Some students are researchers and writers, some shoot photos, some create video to include in their digital newspapers, while art and design-loving students undertake the look."

Teachers are acting as editors in chief. Of the Front Page entries to date, Tapp says the newspapers are "terrific and diverse".

"Primary schools have students' drawings and short articles about things at their school such as playground, canteen and library; secondary school entries include science articles and investigations, history, politics and content that appeals to their wider school community."

"The audience a school has in mind can be the other students and teachers or it can be their community. It's up to the students and teachers to decide the reach of their audience," Tapp says.

Phones are being put to good use and where it suits schools, selfies are included.

Primary age entrants submit a PDF of a four-page A3-size newspaper; secondary entrants submit a PDF of their eight-page A3-size newspaper.

"The main thing is to have diverse content across subjects, across curriculum areas, across social spheres and sports which should give an idea of what a school newspaper of the future could look like," Tapp says.